Featured Story: August
Hey! My name is Jasna, I also go by nejna and ponekad depending on the site. I want to thank everyone who nominated and voted for Patrol to be Featured Submission for August.
A bit about me:
I'm 31 year old design engineer from Croatia. I really enjoy travelling so usually I spend all my excess money on it because I partake in few trips abroad in a year. I tend to spend my free time on reading and painting. I read everything from historical facts and romance novels to fantasy and SF, of course I also like to find and read fanfictions from HP fandom. Also I'm quite active in A Song Of Ice And fire fandom as fanart creator.
No matter how I like to read, my favourite hobby is painting whether portraits and sceneries in watercolours or digital fanarts. I think I draw and paint my whole life but I started to do it more seriously after finishing my master thesis few years ago. Only few of my closest friends and my husband know about my interest in creating fanart. Sadly my participation in fandom was reduced greatly this last year due RL issues.
How and why did you get into D/Hr?
I saw some amazing pictures that were illustrations for some fanfiction stories back at Deviantart and I followed provided links. I wanted to see what could be so amazing to inspire such an art. I must say I was hooked on fanfiction even before I've read the books themselves. But I don't ship only D/Hr, although majority of my work is in this ship.
How long have you been painting D/Hr?
I've been active as an artist in fandom for about three years, but I've been enjoying various fanfiction stories for much longer period of time. Sometime in this period I started creating D/Hr fanart.
What is your creative process like?
I'm using two opposite methods during painting.
If I'm working for an exchange or with a particular scene on mind I try to find a useful references for poses and then I paint with and around them.
In other cases I spot some inspiring pose during lurking at Deviantart stock archives. Then I imagine a little story, scene really that could go with it and then I paint by adding details from my imagination.
Usually I know where I'm going with a painting but it isn't unusual to change my mind about the setting, background or colour scheme during painting itself.
If anyone wondered about exact process of painting, I'm painting using tablet and pen in Photoshop. Everything is painted in numerous layers, so in original versions my paintings are really huge to 1 GB in ten to twenty layers. First I colour larger parts of paintings to get the feeling about the colours I'm going to use later on and the position of some source of light, then I add details bit by bit. I'm a bit of perfectionist so sometimes I overdo with details. I think I'm never really finished with my paintings, I tend to go back and improve, and again back and improve...
How did you come up with the scene for this painting? How did it develop?
Patrol was originally painted for The Anniversary Project of Hawthorn and Vine that included several amazing artists creating new skins for the site. I was approached by Sage, and together with her and other artists I decided on what trope/cliche I was going to claim. At that time I had several scenes for this and Marriage Law trope/cliche. But as I went with Head Boy/Head Girl trope I decided the most used cliche in it is patrol, and their different views on following rules, so that is the reason Hermione is holding A Hogwarts: Rules and Regulations and is punishing boy for something Draco was willing to award points for.
How long have you been painting it?
As I remember it took me about a week, but at that time I was at sick leave, so I could work on it for several hours a day.
Do you write as the mood strikes or on a schedule?
Solitude and quiet around me improves my mood during painting so quality increases with the amount of it. Also visual art created by someone else, stock photos especially and sometimes fanfictions themselves. When I read some touching scene that is well written and described it seems my fingers start to itch for brush, but in the end my time is limited so usually that urge goes unanswered. So I must say I paint when the mood strikes me and I have time to answer that call.
Was there a part that was difficult to paint? If so, why?
The painting itself wasn't difficult to paint, but as I said I have difficulty with the fact I'm never quite satisfied with final results and I'm always going back, sometimes months or years after publishing final version. But somehow at one point I manage to literally force myself to stop adding details. The Anniversary Project was good for it because I had a deadline so I was forced to call it finished.
What are your favourite things about this pairing and this particular trope?
I like the idea that people can change and redeem themselves during growing up. Also they are just born for interesting banters and unusual situations. The fact that they are so unlikely pair in cannon just calls for great fanfiction writers to find ways for them to fall in love and overcome all obstacles, and their joint tenure as Head Boy/Head Girl is just perfect for it.
If you have more questions just go and ask...
Patrol
A bit about me:
I'm 31 year old design engineer from Croatia. I really enjoy travelling so usually I spend all my excess money on it because I partake in few trips abroad in a year. I tend to spend my free time on reading and painting. I read everything from historical facts and romance novels to fantasy and SF, of course I also like to find and read fanfictions from HP fandom. Also I'm quite active in A Song Of Ice And fire fandom as fanart creator.
No matter how I like to read, my favourite hobby is painting whether portraits and sceneries in watercolours or digital fanarts. I think I draw and paint my whole life but I started to do it more seriously after finishing my master thesis few years ago. Only few of my closest friends and my husband know about my interest in creating fanart. Sadly my participation in fandom was reduced greatly this last year due RL issues.
How and why did you get into D/Hr?
I saw some amazing pictures that were illustrations for some fanfiction stories back at Deviantart and I followed provided links. I wanted to see what could be so amazing to inspire such an art. I must say I was hooked on fanfiction even before I've read the books themselves. But I don't ship only D/Hr, although majority of my work is in this ship.
How long have you been painting D/Hr?
I've been active as an artist in fandom for about three years, but I've been enjoying various fanfiction stories for much longer period of time. Sometime in this period I started creating D/Hr fanart.
What is your creative process like?
I'm using two opposite methods during painting.
If I'm working for an exchange or with a particular scene on mind I try to find a useful references for poses and then I paint with and around them.
In other cases I spot some inspiring pose during lurking at Deviantart stock archives. Then I imagine a little story, scene really that could go with it and then I paint by adding details from my imagination.
Usually I know where I'm going with a painting but it isn't unusual to change my mind about the setting, background or colour scheme during painting itself.
If anyone wondered about exact process of painting, I'm painting using tablet and pen in Photoshop. Everything is painted in numerous layers, so in original versions my paintings are really huge to 1 GB in ten to twenty layers. First I colour larger parts of paintings to get the feeling about the colours I'm going to use later on and the position of some source of light, then I add details bit by bit. I'm a bit of perfectionist so sometimes I overdo with details. I think I'm never really finished with my paintings, I tend to go back and improve, and again back and improve...
How did you come up with the scene for this painting? How did it develop?
Patrol was originally painted for The Anniversary Project of Hawthorn and Vine that included several amazing artists creating new skins for the site. I was approached by Sage, and together with her and other artists I decided on what trope/cliche I was going to claim. At that time I had several scenes for this and Marriage Law trope/cliche. But as I went with Head Boy/Head Girl trope I decided the most used cliche in it is patrol, and their different views on following rules, so that is the reason Hermione is holding A Hogwarts: Rules and Regulations and is punishing boy for something Draco was willing to award points for.
How long have you been painting it?
As I remember it took me about a week, but at that time I was at sick leave, so I could work on it for several hours a day.
Do you write as the mood strikes or on a schedule?
Solitude and quiet around me improves my mood during painting so quality increases with the amount of it. Also visual art created by someone else, stock photos especially and sometimes fanfictions themselves. When I read some touching scene that is well written and described it seems my fingers start to itch for brush, but in the end my time is limited so usually that urge goes unanswered. So I must say I paint when the mood strikes me and I have time to answer that call.
Was there a part that was difficult to paint? If so, why?
The painting itself wasn't difficult to paint, but as I said I have difficulty with the fact I'm never quite satisfied with final results and I'm always going back, sometimes months or years after publishing final version. But somehow at one point I manage to literally force myself to stop adding details. The Anniversary Project was good for it because I had a deadline so I was forced to call it finished.
What are your favourite things about this pairing and this particular trope?
I like the idea that people can change and redeem themselves during growing up. Also they are just born for interesting banters and unusual situations. The fact that they are so unlikely pair in cannon just calls for great fanfiction writers to find ways for them to fall in love and overcome all obstacles, and their joint tenure as Head Boy/Head Girl is just perfect for it.
If you have more questions just go and ask...
Patrol